I am on-site this week in NYC. As luck would have it, the NYCFUG met with Michael Dinowitz (a.k.a. Papa Dinnie) presenting on the Google Webmaster Tools.

The majority of my IT experience has been in building enterprise class applications. I do not build websites (DO YOU HEAR THAT, FAMILY?), though I occasionally take on a client that needs help raising visibility for a product or a service so I was excited to hear Michael present on the Google webmaster tools.

If you have never been to an NYCFUG meeting, you should go. Skip the Empire State Building, forget a Broadway show, just go to CFUG. It was probably the most active CFUG meeting I had been to. There were lots of questions from the audience and some heated debates over some of the answers. I laughed, I cried and I thought there might be a stabbing at one point (Editors Note: Remove Gratuitious Exaggeration before publishing). It was a really good time.

So on to the talk. Michael spent an hour going over the Google Webmaster Tools and various strategies to arrange the facets of a website to improve ranking by Google. For example, See those fancy links to content inside the filezilla website?

Have you ever wondered where those come from? Michael covers it in his presentation. He also covers content optimization, site maps, external link management, proper redirects and other important topics.

After listening to Michael talk about this for an hour, I feel much more informed about the tools, tips and tricks I can use to help search engines interpret my site better. I also have a much greater awareness of the tools available that help manage websites. A big thanks to Michael for giving this excellent presentation.

Michael will make his presentation materials available soon. Check the NYCFUG site for more information.